2013.02.27 The Amazing Race

For study abroad and exchange students, Swinburne University's Abroad Office organized a scavenger hunt beginning on campus and ending in inner city.  The race was scheduled to begin at 10:30 am, but I woke up a couple hours earlier to get a few things done early.

For starters, after orientation on Monday I was supposed to fill out formal enrollment paperwork, officially securing my spot in the classes I had a space reserved in.  I completely missed that - oops!  So I took a walk over to the Swinburne Faculty of Business and Enterprise office to get it sorted out.  They took care of me, and I was set in less than 30 minutes.

Next I headed over to the Student Services office to get a Transit Concession Card application.  Victoria Public Transit allows higher education students to ride all public transit (including tram, train, and bus) at a reduced rate, about half-off from what I've noticed!  So I got an application and had the form signed by the office, received a verification letter from the abroad office, and got my concession card.  Now, it was time to head over to the Amazing Race.

We were given the rules: We were to go to each of the mandatory locations listen on our brochure and take a picture with each of our team members in it.  We are awarded one point for the picture at each, and bonus points for making the photo creative.  Additionally, there were bonus locations to go to, many of which were time dependent (i.e. get a video of the clock at Melbourne Central playing its chime at the top of the hour).  To be considered for the prize, you must get every mandatory location.

Here is a list of the locations that I can remember off the top of my head:

Mandatory:
Queen Victoria Market
China Town
Bourke Street Mall
State Library of Victoria
Parliament House
Southern Cross Station
Melbourne Central Station
Visitor Center
Crown Royal Casino
South Bank
Degraves Street
Melbourne Arts Centre
National Gallery of Victoria

Optional:
Get a video of the Melbourne Central Station Clock playing at the top of the hour
Get a picture eating a hot jam donut at Queen Victoria Market
Get a video of the Gog and McGog clock playing at the Bourke Street Mall
Take your most creative picture under the giant donut by the Royal Crown Casino

After splitting into six teams, we were off to the Glenferrie train station less than a block away.

On the train we started looking up each location and marking it on a map.  By the time we arrived at inner city we had an entire route planned, and headed straight to Melbourne Street Station - it was almost 11 am, and we could catch the clock playing.

We got off, immediately found the clock (it was hard to miss) and waited for five minutes for it to play. Unfortunately, I still do not have all of the scavenger hunt pictures (they are scattered throughout my teammate's phones) but here is a YouTube video of the clock going off.

Melbourne Central is the northern-most stop in the inner city loop, so we started off by walking north to our furthest location, the Queen Victoria Market.  The plan was to work our way south and east from there, ending at Flinders Street Station.  It was a six or seven block walk to the Queen Victoria Market, only to find that it was closed!

Throughout the day we made our way south, snapping pictures at different iconic locations throughout the city.  The architecture continued to amaze me, and we noticed a few buildings that were a little hard to explain, like this one by RMIT University.

We even passed a few alleyways that are intentionally designated for graffiti, and actually look pretty cool (and a bit trippy to walk through).  I snapped a shot of these two works, although there were several possibly more impressive ones.

Continuing on, we hit China Town about midway through the inner city.  China town made all of us hungry, and we started scoping for somewhere to eat.

We decided to first continue East to the Parliament Building before getting food.  It was another few blocks walk, but we were there before we knew it.  Unfortunately, construction consuming most of the front of the building stopped me from getting a great shot, but here was a section that had been untouched by the construction.

And finally we were off to get food.  We walked a bit further southwest towards Flinders Street where food would be less expensive (hitting a couple more locations on the way).  Eventually, we settled on a Japanese restaurant suggested by a French exchange student, Philippe. 

I ordered a bowl of Chicken Katsu Don and a prawn sushi roll (prawn is shrimp).  The cost of living in Melbourne is pretty high - food is generally more expensive, housing is ridiculously expensive, and alcohol is usually at least twice the price.  A bottle of Smirnoff here, not a handle, a bottle, costs over $40 USD!!  But of all things, sushi is extremely inexpensive.  It costs just $2.50 for a roll!  Granted, the roll is only about 4-5 pieces, but still, I would never be able to fill up on $10 worth of sushi at home like I can here.  I will be eating a lot of sushi while I'm here, and I'm very happy about that!

Now by Flinders Street, we collected to visitors center picture and got a snap of the Eureka Tower from the distance.

This is the same statue I posted a picture of in one of my earlier posts.

Our hands were a bit off, but it's the creativity that counts right??

We continued south of the station now, and outside of the inner city loop, to many of the locations I had previously explored such as the National Gallery of Victoria and and Melbourne Arts Centre, trying to grab creativity points with each picture.

Pretending to surf the modern art grabbed us an extra point!

We only had a few more locations left: the Crown Royal Casino, Southern Cross Station, South Bank, and our most creative picture under the giant donut.  So, we headed straight to the Casino and grabbed our creativity picture there as well.

We grabbed a shot of the southern back of the Yarra River and had only two left: the most creative and Southern Cross Station.

I am still trying to get our most creative picture from Carol's camera, but we won the most points of any team for it: we made a Harlem Shake video underneath the donuts!  For those of you that don't know, it is a current  YouTube sensation, and is a 30-second video featuring the same song in each video.  It starts with one person dancing, and 15 seconds later everybody in strange outfits dancing strangely.  

As an impromptu attempt, with no props or plan, it turned out really well!  Check back again to see our Harlem Shake video!  In the mean time, for those of you that haven't seen one, here is an example of the Norwegian Army making a Harlem Shake video.

UPDATE (2013.03.05)

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My friend Carol got the video to me, so after some quick editing and adding in the audio track it didn't turn out bad at all.  Considering we had no costumes or props, and that many of the international students didn't even know what a harlem shake is, I'd call it a success.  In the future I want to make a really good one though.

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Finally we headed to the final spot, the Southern Cross Station.  We walked back to Flinders Street Station and caught a train to the station, got off, looked for the first sign with the station name on it.  Our photograph is a good representation of how we felt.

My team had finished just in time after getting every single location, including all bonus pictures.  We headed to the post-race meeting point, an outdoor bar just beside the Yarra River to have a couple beers, meet up with the other teams and compare pictures for judging.

After about 30 minutes the pictures were judged and the winners were announced - my team and another tied for first!  I was hoping for some free drinks as a prize, but instead we got a heap of Australian chocolates and snacks.  Not quite as exciting, but after that tiring day I'd take it.

2013.02.26 Orientation Events and Hawthorn Hotel

Tuesday of Orientation week held three fun events for students on campus.  The first started at midday and was hosted by SSAA, or Swinburne Student Amenities Association.

The event was in the George building, on campus just next to my apartment complex.  It consisted of several booths from organizations such as the school's dance team, christian groups, the ski club, independent banking and phone companies, and more.  But my favorite part was the free potato snack - I actually do not even know what it is called.

But what they did was grab a potato and pushed it onto a rotating shaft with a blade mounted to it.  They would then use a handle to spin the shaft which both moved the potato forward and spun the potato against the blade (number 1 above).  The potato was then put on a wood stick and stretched out, resulting in a single, swirling piece of potato on a stick (number 2 above).

It was then dipped in some thin, white batter, where the next person fried and seasoned the potato with your flavor choice (salt and pepper, nacho cheese, chicken and salt, barbecue or hot & spicy).

You're only supposed to have one without waiting in line again, but I snuck away with two.

Later in the evening at 4 PM the school held free social for students with ale, apple cider, pear cider and pizza.  I met more exchange students I hadn't had a chance to talk to, and connected further with ones I had, while slowly getting drunk off of cider.  This was actually the first time I had ever had cider with alcohol in it and it was absolutely delicious.  The pear cider was especially tasty.

After drinking the cider for two and a half hours I was quite drunk and needed a break before that night's party.  I went back to my apartment and fell asleep (I know, I got lazy). 

A couple hours passed and I woke up, took a quick shower, changed, and headed out the door for the day's third activity - the Hawthorn Hotel party.  The downstairs was multiple rooms, five in total I believe, complete with a DJ and dance floor, spot lights and lazers, pool tables, and three bars.  Continuing further took you to an outside are and bar, as well as a large deck with seating and tables up a flight of stairs.  

After a quick look-around, Leonie and I headed to the bar to get a couple quick drinks.  I took advantage of the night's specials and took a few quick tequila shots before heading off to the dance floor.  Before I knew it all of the exchange students had taken over the small elevated dance area overlooking the rest of the crowd.

The night continued between dancing, going out onto the deck, hitting the bar, and playing pool.

And of course, more dancing.

I enjoyed the night into well into the morning until finally heading back to my apartment, sweaty and exhausted.

Tomorrow is the Amazing Race at 10:30 am - a scavenger hunt for exchange and study abroad students to explore the campus and city.  I'll be sure to post about it soon!

2013.02.25 Orientation

Marking one week until classes start, I woke up on my first Monday in Melbourne for orientation.  It was located in the Advanced Technology Centre, but I didn't even need to pull up a map - I followed the crowd of people with accents.  I realized that this was my first walk through the heart of campus, down John Street.  From my direction, the beginning of the walk looks like this:

Walking a little further I ran into my favorite structure on the campus: the library.  Honestly, this is just getting ridiculous now.

And yes, that is a waterfall running in between the railings on the stairs.  I now realize why Drexel is rated as having one of the least aesthetic campuses.  The building features a psuedo-outdoor atrium/lobby area with seating and tables for group studying, while the actual library the the orange building on the right (in the picture above).  I even love sliding glass doors used to enter the lobby and the library itself.

Here is the AD building, titled the "Old Administration Building"

Once I stopped myself from being distracted by the campus I continued to the ATC building, was welcomed into the lecture hall and took a seat.

I found out several interesting things at the orientation session.  I learned that this is only one of two actual academic orientation sessions throughout the week.  The rest of orientation at Australian universities consist of the school organizing social events for students.  Many of these are even just parties put together by the university, with drinks included for free!

One of the professors, Mark (Dr. Mark Finn actually, but in Australian academic culture professors are almost always called simply by their first name) started his speech by saying something similar to this:

"I see a very common issue when exchange students visit Australia - especially from countries with higher drinking ages.  And the problem is this: you have a hard time keeping up with our drinking.  Alcohol is a big part of Australian culture and if you cannot drink as much as us that is OK, you don't have to."

I was excited - I definitely chose the right country to have an fun, exciting, adventurous and cultural experience at.

After a few more lectures on fire safety, school security contact numbers and police phone numbers, a final presentation was put on by two students - Tim and Josh - that covered several more exciting topics including Australian slang.  Here are some examples I remember.

Pull up a stump - take a seat
Bugger - oh crap
Arvo - afternoon
Froffel, tinny, schooner (and more I can't remember) - beer
Things went off light a frog in a sock - things got crazy
Budgie smugglers - speedo
Bogan - something similar to an Australian redneck
Flippin your wig - freaking out
Woopwoop - general term for somewhere out in the middle of nowhere
The bush - the outback
Old mate - dude (can be used to refer to anybody)
Old boy - dad
Old girl - mom
Missus - wife or girlfriend

There is much more, and you can look at more of them here if you'd like: http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html

After orientation was finished I headed to the train station on my own to go to the inner city - I needed to exchange my currency.  After White Night I was versed in the train system and was there in no time. Things looked quite different when it wasn't taken over by White Night decorations and celebrators!  This is Flinders Street station, the first inner city station from my direction (and the one I got off at on White Night).

After a one block walk to a currency exchange outlet I began exploring.  The station is right next to the Yarra river, which has walkways for joggers, cyclists, and walkers.  And believe me, it has the Schuylkill river trail in Philadelphia beat. 

I walked out onto the Flinders Street bridge to get a better view of the Yarra River.

I kept walking across the river to the tall tower I saw lit in Blue during White Night to find out what it actually was - it turned out to be the Melbourne Arts Centre.

Again, it is absolutely gorgeous.  In the courtyard just below it there is some neat modern art for pedestrians to get some shade under.

And finally, I walked up to the highest landing I could on the Melbourne Arts Centre to take a snapshot of the full inner city skyline.

With that I headed back - I still had to get a new SIM card for my iPhone before the stores closed.  I had noticed that in Australia, similar to my experience years ago in Germany, stores close earlier than in the United States, so I made sure to head back to Swinburne early enough.  For example, almost all restaurants on campus are closed by 6 pm on weekdays.

I got back onto campus, grabbed a new SIM (the Optus store is right off campus) and headed back to my apartment to relax for a few hours before the night's festivities began.

That night I enjoyed an outdoor barbie (slang for barbecue) and apartment party at one of the orientation leader's apartments.  After hours of drinking a handful of exchanged students headed back to my apartment to wind down the night with a few more drinks.  With a deck of cards my sister gifted me before leaving in my hand, I learned that none of the students knew how to play Kings!  That night, I taught students from over 5 different countries how to play an American card game!

At that point, it was extremely late, and I hit the bed with nothing at all scheduled for the next morning.  Ahhh, sleeping in.

2013.02.24 Brighton Beach

I had a nice chance to sleep in, but still only slept until 9 am; somehow I wasn't jetlagged!  I spent the morning finding a hardware store, getting a power adapter for my laptop, checking in my parents, etc.  At 1:30 I met up with some other students - Tania from Mexico City, Julia Leonie and Dennis from Germany, and headed to the train.  Our destination was Brighton Beach, a popular and close beach location for Melbourne residents.

It was only 40 minutes of travel time total by train, including waiting for a line transfer.  But it didn't seem to take that long at all, the entire ride was filled with really interesting views.

Throughout the ride we got to know each other better and even exchanged travel aspirations we each had, including renting a car for a Sydney trip, renting a jeep for a day and night in the outback, and flying over to New Zealand to backpack and bungee jump for spring break!  But before we knew it we were there, and were looking for other students from Mexico, Philadelphia (another student from Drexel, who knew) and more that I can't recall.

We immediately set up and jumped into the water for well over an hour, talking about other countries that we've been to, what we're studying and more.  Dennis is a scuba diver as well, so we exchanged dive stories including his dives off the coasts of Egypt and Greece.  We then went in dried off and laid down where each of us fell asleep - I have a light pink burn as a reminder.

After a full day at the beach we headed back to campus in search of a good place for food.  We found a food type none of us have had much, if ever, before - Malaysian - and went in without hesitation.  Don't ask me what I ate or what was in it, because I honestly have no idea, but it was delicious.

With still a few hours in the evening to spare, we headed to the store, grabbed a couple of six packs, and met more students for some drinking card games.  This is when I met Lyda and Adam from Boston, Rachel from Australia (i seem to meet less Australians than other nationalities), and even more students from Germany (they must be multiplying).

Eventually we decided to say our goodbyes to shower, relax, and get ready for orientation the next day.  Which brings me to where I am right this moment - dirty and sandy from the beach, in need of some moisturizer for my burns, and ready for sleep again.

2013.02.23 White Night

I had only been in my new apartment for 90 minutes, most of it spent talking to my new Australian roommate, when I saw the Facebook post.  Two study abroad students were celebrating their 21st birthdays, hosting a pre-game party, and then heading out to White Night.  The party had started hours ago and they were preparing to head out in a little over an hour.  I hadn't even opened my suitcase, checked in with my parents, or put linens on my bed but I had already made my decision: I was going.

I took the shortest - and most rewarding - shower of my life, brushed my teeth, and changed all in the span of about 10 minutes and I was out the door.  I had the address in my head and had referenced a map just before I left, but was more or less wandering around until I found the party.  Granted, the music and large group of students outside with countless accents outside made identifying the right place pretty easy.

I walked in and was immediately greeted with cheers and drinks, a welcome change of pace to my last 38 hours.  Finally, a little fun and a nice start to my study abroad experience.

Fast forward past the drinking, the greeting and introductions: we were drunk and ready to head out to White Night.  I really had no idea what White Night was, but understood that it was a full night-long music and light show celebration.  Leaning on the other students to be more familiar with how to get there than I was, I followed their lead, bought a train ticket and hopped on.


It was a nice surprise to find out that inner city is only five stops away from the train station (which is only 1 block away from my apartment)!  So we were there in no time, and I must say, the view right off the train was extremely surprising.

The area was enormous and packed.  There were music artist playing on stages with large screens behind them, people selling various goods on the sidewalk, and food was abundant.  One of the coolest things about the festival were the lights - several buildings were lit spectacularly just for this occasion, some of them including moving light shows on the building faces.

There was more than I can explain, but I did grab a snap of a large chute of rattling glow sticks that were on display for spectators to observe and (belligerently) walk up and shake, making quite a loud noise.

Throughout the night, despite only just meeting each other, the group of us were holding hands to prevent being split apart.  But there were too many of us - at least 15 in my group - and we decided to split apart based on our interests for the night.  I ended up with an australian and four Canadians, which is when we headed to a club called Code Red.  Two of the girls I was with were the ones celebrating their 21st birthdays, and they had placed us on the guest list of the club earlier that day.  After talking more and walking towards the club, we were in and drinking a complementary bottle of champagne before I knew it.

Once one glass of champagne was finished our glasses were refilled - and then again.  Soon we were on the dance floor (the DJ was good too, which is a big plus) for a couple of hours.  Eventually more study abroad students made their was to Code Red, including a couple of German girls, a guy from Italy, Finland, and more.

Now, the clubs, artists performing outdoors, and light shows for White Night continue all the way until dawn, but I was exhausted after all of the travel.  And thankfully other students had only just arrived that morning as well and were jet-lagged.  So we headed back to the train station.

Once back at the Glenferrie station, only half awake at this point, we grabbed some quick food, said our good byes, and went back to our apartments.  Once home, I fell asleep immediately - I didn't even have enough energy to put sheets on my mattress before crashing.

2013.02.21 Leaving for Swinburne University in Melbourne

After months of preparation, I began my 36 hour (yes, 36 freakin' hours) trip to Melbourne to study abroad at Swinburne University. Equipped with my Mom's polkadot luggage, my Sister, Mom and Dad hopped into the van and started their routine 52-step check to make sure I had everything.  Once I had their OK, we were off.  The ride was actually not that bad for having four Chapman's in the car for an hour and a half; my sister reminded me to visit P. Sherman at 42, Wallabe Way, Sydney while my mom went off on the countless dangers of the outback.  I can only be thankful that my sister didn't start poking me in the ear with her foot like she usually does during long car rides.

Eventually we reached the airport and walked into my terminal.

I went through the airport routine, checked my bags, got my boarding passes, stored my luggage receipts, and said goodbye to my family at the entrance to the security check.

Once the tears were done, I waited in the security line with plenty of time to make my 6:30 PM departure for Los Angeles.  I grabbed some food, waited, and boarded.  I was pleasantly surprised when I got to my seat to find that I had the entire row to myself.  I won't lie to you - I used all three seats.  The airplane took off on time and landed as scheduled.

This was the easy part.  Next was the plane ride from hell - from Los Angeles to Sydney.  The total air time was 14 hours and 11 minutes.

Now, I can tell you that I am pretty strong when it comes to long travel times.  When I went to Germany, the flights didn't really phase me.  But let me tell you: When you pass over Honolulu after five hours, then pull up the flight status to see you're not even half way, that is EXACTLY when the depression sets in.  Especially when you're trapped by the window in an incredibly cramped economy seat.

I advise anybody taking flights like this to reserve aisle seats.  The take-off and landing views are not worth it, I promise you.  But the flight overall was - being greeted with "G'day mate" in Sydney was enough to snap me out of the tired mood.

Unfortunately the weather in Sydney was rainy, so taking the bus to my new domestic terminal was a bit meek.  But seeing the Airbus 380 I will be flying back to the states in, with the Qantas kangaroo logo on the back was still pretty neat.

Despite a 90 minute delay in my flight from Sydney to Melbourne, the trip went smoothly.  I even struck up a pretty interesting conversation about bungee jumping and squirrel swings with a New Zealander - we continued chatting all the way until we both had out suitcases from baggage claim.  At that point, I found my airport pickup provider and headed to board a bus with other study abroad students from China, Thailand, California and Ohio.

We started talking about our excitement about being in Melbourne for four months throughout the car ride, but once we passed right by the skyline on the highway we all quieted - I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

At the end of the car ride I ended up right at the door of my apartment complex, Unilodge @ Swinburne Place.  I went up to the welcome door and checked in, got my room key and made my way to my room.  So far only one of three other roommates has moved in, so it is pretty quiet.

I get my own small bedroom which is nice, and is all I need.

The living room and kitchen is also a pretty standard college four-person set up, although I don't imagine myself spending much time in these rooms!

But I must say, the huge balcony right outside my living room with a pretty sweet view is a nice bonus.

So this catches you up to exactly where I am as I write this.  What is next?  A nice, long shower, a well-deserved nap, and preparation for my first night in Melbourne: White Night!  White Night is a celebration from dusk until dawn with over 80 free attractions celebrating food, music, dance, film, art, and light.  More can be read here: whitenightmelbourne.com.au

With that, I'm off; I'll give you guys an update on White Night tomorrow!